Daily Archives: August 19, 2012
The Crook of Mormon
via: christopherstreet
Do you really want change?
via: phroyd
What ever you care about, are you more likely to be able to have a conversation about it with the GOP or the Democratic Party? GOTTAVOTE.COM
Remember 2010? Don’t negotiate with terrorists.
Does Romney think taxes are a form of “charity” and how much DOES he give the LDS Church?
Rosalind S. Helderman at The Washington Post asks, because “…Romney seemed to suggest that he might think so last week, when he responded to questions about how much he pays in taxes by suggesting that people should take into account his total contributions to the government and charities.”
The comment was a quick one — a by-golly insistence that despite paying a relatively low tax rate on his vast income, the millions he has given to charity show that he’s not a greedy guy.
But experts who research public attitudes on philanthropy on both sides of the political spectrum said it was an inadvertently revealing moment, a brief window into the deep philosophical differences between how liberals and conservatives view government and society.
Another question raised here earlier is why are donations to the Mormon Church considered ‘charity’ and are therefore tax deductible — especially when such tithing is required by the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? We know the Romneys tithe the required 10% to the Church, so you’d presume that if their 2010 return says they gave 13% to charity, then 10% of that was to the LDS Church. In January (not followed up, ever heard about this?) ABC News found there may be even more contributions to the Church from the Romney family through Bain Capital (one wonders, with the associated tax deductions?):
Newly uncovered stock contributions made during Romney’s Bain days suggest there is another dimension to Romney’s support for the church — one that could involve millions more than has been previously disclosed.
As part of just one Bain transaction in 2008, involving its investment in Burger King Holdings, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal that an unnamed Bain partner donated 65,326 shares of Burger King stock to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, holdings then worth nearly $1.9 million. And there were numerous others, giving the church a stake in other Bain properties, such as Domino’s Pizza, the electronics manufacturer DDi, the phosphates company Innophos Holdings, and Marquee Holdings, the parent to AMC Theaters.
The Republican presidential candidate’s campaign staff confirmed that some of the stock transactions were at Romney’s direction, but they would not say which ones.
[...] In some cases the filings are vague about the way stocks are apportioned to the different recipients. In others, such as the 2000 stock sale involving DDi Corporation, the records show the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held 27,016 shares, worth $754,827 at the time of the sale. In a 2008 stock sale involving Innophos Holdings, the church’s 50,301 shares were worth nearly $1.4 million. SEC filings for Marquee Holdings note that “certain members and other employees of Bain and its affiliates may make a contribution of shares to one or more charities prior to this offering, including … The Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
Charitable donations! You know what would actually be wonderfully karmic? If at some point, Bain Capital had given Stericycle stock to “The Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
Mitt Romney’s fortune combined with all the associated business dealings through Bain Capital — which can now be connected in unknown numerous ways with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – is like traveling down the rabbit hole without hope of returning anytime soon.
What Mitt Romney has on his side is American media: they don’t like to research such information or follow the money — it could get ‘uncomfortable’ with their pre-programmed formula of “both sides do it,” the GOP loves America, and Democrats are socialist hippies. Of course now the question becomes: how much of our mainstream media might be owned (by a one- to six-degree separation) by Kolob or the billionaires who are working behind the scenes to buy the White House?
Maybe people ought to start paying more attention.
Total Recall 2012: ignore if you don’t like SF movies
Went to see Total Recall yesterday and we liked it. The special effects were great, but the levitating car chases were probably a bit too long. And with all the seemingly unnecessary screen time her character got after the first or second act, you’d think Kate Beckinsale’s husband was directing. Continue reading
Avoiding an argument
#sundog
What the big dog doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
The remedy for American conservative evangelicalism: find the New Testament, start reading
“This isn’t really a problem with Paul Ryan; it’s a problem with a distinctively American brand of conservative evangelicalism. The aspiring VP can live with a glaring contradiction because his constituency shares his passion for Antichrist ideas. The Sunday School teachers of evangelical America can give you 101 clever reasons why Jesus didn’t really mean what he said about money, power, humility, forgiveness, sacrificial love or politics. The conservative movement dominates American politics because it has cobbled together a simple, internally coherent philosophy rooted in selfishness, pride, radical individualism, nationalism, militarism, and faith in the free market. If you are familiar with Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels, you will recognize this as the religion of Antichrist … or if you prefer, Satan. If you aren’t familiar with the words of Jesus, half an hour with the nearest Bible should remedy the problem. Find the part called “New Testament” and start reading.” — Why Paul Ryan doesn’t have an Ayn Rand problem (via azspot)
Can you guess who said it? Regarding a stimulus bill, on the House floor…
“In recessions unemployment lags on well after a recovery has taken place. We’ve got to get the engine of economic growth growing again because we now know, because of recession, we don’t have the revenues that we wanted to, we don’t have the revenues we need, to fix Medicare, to fix Social Security, to fix these issues. We’ve got to get Americans back to work. Then the surpluses come back, then the jobs come back. That is the constructive answer we’re trying to accomplish here on, yes, a bipartisan basis. I urge members to drop the demagoguery and to pass this bill to help us work together to get the American people back to work and help those people who’ve lost their jobs.”
“We have a lot of laid off workers, and more layoffs are occurring. And we know, as a historical fact, that even if our economy begins to slowly recover, unemployment is going to linger on and on well after that recovery takes place. What we have been trying to do starting in October and into December and now is to try and get people back to work. The things we’re trying to pass in this bill are the time-tested, proven, bipartisan solutions to get businesses to stop laying off people, to hire people back, and to help those people who have lost their jobs… It’s more than just giving someone an unemployment check. It’s also helping those people with their health insurance while they’ve lost their jobs and more important than just that unemployment check, it’s to do what we can to give people a paycheck.”
Give up? Continue reading
When Mitt Romney and Bain Capital profited from Medicare fraud
This comes from blue aardvark at Daily Kos, who summarizes:
“Bain invests in a company. Mitt gets personally involved with managing said company. Company profits are significantly based upon Medicare Fraud. Bain & Romney never uncover the fraud in 4 years, Corning uncovers it immediately upon buying Damon. Despite the fraud, Bain triples its investment, and Romney’s share of that profit is a cool half a million.
“Damon laid off workers despite Mitt Romney serving on the board and the strategic planning committee. Despite the failure of the business model to generate new jobs, Bain Capital tripled its investment, and Romney himself made nearly half a million dollars. Rampant fraud was supporting earnings, yet Romney was not able to notice.”
Where did the information come from? “From the delightful gift that is John McCain’s opposition research on Mitt (courtesy of namelessgenxer).”
Here’s the timeline:
- 1988: Damon begins a systemic practice of fraud. The government estimates later that the total cost to taxpayers of this fraud is around $40,000,000
- 1990: Bain Capital (CEO Mitt Romney) buys a minority stake in Damon. Mitt takes a seat on the board of directors
- 1990 to 1993: Mitt serves on the board of directors, earning ~$10,000 per year for doing so. He is on the company’s “Strategic Planning” committee
- 1992: Romney said that [Damon’s then-CEO Robert] Rosen told the board in about 1992 ‘that all current practices at the company were now in conformity with government regulations and that in the past there may have been practices which would not be deemed appropriate.
- 1993: Damon is taken over by Corning, with Mitt Romney voting in favor of the acquisition
- 1993: Corning immediately closes Damon’s Massachusetts plant and lays off 115 workers
- 1993: Corning uncovers the fraud and alerts authorities. The SEC filings made by Damon prior to the acquisition make no mention of any potential earnings write-downs or legal problems
- 1993: Mitt Romney’s share of Bain’s profit from the Damon investment: $473,000
- 1993: Bain’s profit from its investment in Damon: $7,400,000, which represented a tripling of the initial investment
And get this malarkey:
- 1994: Running for Senator, Mitt Romney says:
I’m proud of the small part I played in the growth of Damon,’ Romney said yesterday. ‘It’s something that Ted Kennedy doesn’t have a clue about – creating real jobs in the private sector.
- 2002: While running for governor, Romney claims that he helped uncover the fraud by starting an investigation. This version of events is disputed by Corning and by the Federal Prosecutors. Mitt also says he never alerted the authorities, which no one disputes.
Why is this important? For several reasons, primarily that which is the “business experience” Mitt Romney would like to say he has in “creating jobs” and successfully running businesses. Except that when we scratch the surface, his actual hands-on experience with businesses, via Bain Capital, usually results in stories of laid-off workers, companies shuttered, and Mitt and his buddies at Bain walking away from the flaming wreckage with millions of dollars for themselves.
ABLC reminds us that it’s also important for this very reason:
He also keeps saying that the $716 billion are cuts to Medicare services and benefits.
Both statements are flat-out lies.
As I’ve explained over and over and over, the “cuts” to Medicare come from savings, reductions in waste and fraud, and ending taxpayer subsidies to insurance companies.
So who actually “robbed” Medicare here?
Brothers
via: absolutelymadness
How cute are these two babies?
